Two Meetings on Airport

An East Hampton Town-appointed committee on airport planning and its noise subcommittee have reconvened as an independent advisory group that hopes to engage the public in debate about the airport. To the end it will hold two meetings at the LTV Studios in Wainscott, the first on Monday from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and another on Aug. 13.

According to a press release sent out by David Gruber, a member of the group who had chaired the noise subcommittee, the group thinks “the issue is too important to be left to town government alone.”

Mr. Gruber also serves as counsel to the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, an airport watchdog group.

“This is part of a long tradition in East Hampton of citizens groups forming to address issues of urgent public concern,” Pat Trunzo III, a former town councilman and member of the group said in the press release. 

“In the ’70s, the Group for the South Fork was created to remedy weaknesses in the town’s planning and environmental management. In the last decade, the Group for Good Government was created to plug holes in the town’s financial management. We intend to do the same for the airport. Otherwise, the current unacceptable  situation threatens to drag on indefinitely.”

The airport noise subcommittee had made a number of recommendations to the town board, several of which were reflected in the access restrictions the board adopted last year. One, a once-a-week limit on takeoffs and landings by noisy planes, was blocked by a judge after aviation interests filed suit and is the subject of ongoing litigation. 

Kathleen Cunningham, a former subcommittee member and chairwoman of the Quiet Skies Coalition, said the board’s “cherry-picking” rather than adopting all of the group’s “mutually reinforcing” proposals weakened “the entire proposed structure of noise control.” The subcommittee was subsequently disbanded.

Mr. Trunzo has suggested that those who wish further information call him at 516-523-6013.